Volleyball Wins Season Opener
8/24/2007 4:12:00 AM | Volleyball
STATESBORO, Ga. --- Junior Bianca Julio (Curitiba, Brazil) posted a double-double of 11 kills and 15 digs in her Georgia Southern debut to lead the Eagles to a tighly-contested 3-0 (30-19, 30-28, 30-26) win over North Florida Friday night at Hanner Fieldhouse. The match was the season-opener for both teams and capped off day one of the GSU Invitational. GSU (1-0) faces Stetson tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. and UNF takes on Georgia at noon.
“I thought we came out and played tough,” said GSU head coach Nicole McCray. “We have a lot of freshmen on the floor and I thought they handled themselves well. We really came together as a team and did some really nice things. We have a long way to go but it was a great start.”
Game one was all Georgia Southern, who used a 10-2 run mid-way through to take control.
GSU led by as many as seven early in the second frame but an 8-0 run put the Lady Ospreys up for the first time since the opening point of the match. But with the score knotted at 24-24, three straight service points from senior Flavia Pereira (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) gave the Eagles the lead for good.
Momentum swung back and forth in the final stanza and the teams traded the lead several times. GSU closed out the match on a 5-2 run and ended it on an ace from freshman Marissa Odom (Gainesville, Fla.).
“North Florida came out and played great, especially in game two,” added McCray. “They took us out of our game a couple of times which made it a lot more difficult. Overall it was a great match and I think we passed well which enabled us to run our offense.”
Julio led all players with 11 kills and freshman Sarah Gildersleeve (Naples, Fla.) added 10 kills. Pereira notched a match-high 22 digs.
Kavie Sturch posted nine kills for UNF and Nikki Prock totaled 14 digs.
